Processing Collections

Illustrative of the work required to preserve and catalog collections and make them accessible online is the nearly completed work with the collection of General Laurence S. Kuter (1905 – 1979).

Kuter was a brilliant planner and leader. As a major in August 1941, he was one of four principal authors of the plan that guided the use of air power in World War II.Later that year he became the youngest brigadier general in the Army. His career included command of Military Air Transport Service, Pacific Air Forces, Air University, and North American Air Defense Command.

The Kuter Collection occupies 52 large albums (five to ten pounds each) holding thousands of artifacts and documents. To preserve the collection and prepare it for online access, contracted specialists have taken more than 10,000 high resolution photographs; removed and replaced deteriorating protective tissue with over 1,500 pieces of high-quality archival tissue; and edited and digitized over 3,000 album pages.

This work was funded entirely by The Friends.

Projects like this one are immensely rewarding. But these projects are costly, and hundreds of collections await similar processing.

Please consider supporting our efforts to make the work of leaders like General Kuter accessible to future generations of Air Force leaders.